26 February 2004	Thursday	05 Muharram 1425

TEL AVIV, Feb 25: Israel is to shorten the planned route of its West Bank separation barrier by some 80 kilometres, military sources said on Wednesday, as world court hearings on the legality of the vast project entered their third and final day.

"We have decided to shorten the length of the fence by 80 kilometres," the source said, pointing out the move will reduce the overall length to 640 kilometres.

It was the second move in four days to reduce the overall length of the West Bank barrier and was clearly timed to coincide with the ongoing arguments on the barrier's legality in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Earlier this week, Israeli troops began dismantling an eight-kilometre section that encloses the Palestinian town of Baka al Sharkiya inside an enclave just north of Tulkarem.

According to Israeli sources, troops will also remove another kilometre-long section that lies to the east of Qalqilia to ease travelling conditions for Palestinians.

Another 20 kilometres, which was planned to run between the villages of Al Mutilla and Teysir in the northeastern corner of the West Bank, is also to be canned, the source said.

Israel will also scrap plans to dig a series of trenches to the northwest of occupied Al Quds which would fence off thousands of Palestinians into a complex network of enclaves.

It was not immediately clear where the remaining cuts would occur. The Israeli government has boycotted the hearings, though it has made written submissions, saying the case is beyond the court's competence. -AFP